Persuading The Multitude

Summary: A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you have that palm branch, dad?” “You see, when Jesus came into town, ev

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you have that palm branch, dad?” “You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today.” The little boy replied, “Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!”

The 1st passage - Palm branches were a symbol of victory (Olympics). The winner of the race carried a palm branch as a flag. Jesus descends off the Mt. to Jerusalem as the victorious King in Israel. Hosanna means “Save.” They cried out “Save us, save us.”

The 2nd passage there is a change of heart. Jesus before Pilate & the crowd… Some believe these are two different crowds & that’s a possibility. However, the crowd followed Him into Jerusalem. Many were there that had heard Him teach, seen Him heal the sick, give sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, and raise the dead and they followed Him wherever He went. They cried out, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.”

I believe many in the 1st crowd were also present in the 2nd crowd. At any rate the key here is Matthew 27:20. They were persuaded. I wonder if we were there how we would have responded, reacted. Would we have been persuaded to cry out against Christ? Let’s concentrate on 5 areas in our own lives that will help keep us from being persuaded:

I. Be Alert to Peer Pressure

I believe that many of the people there praised because they were caught up in the excitement, everyone else was doing it. Many cried out crucify Him for the same reason. But they didn’t know why.

It is in our nature to go along with the crowd. We want to please others. Do what they do, dress the way they dress, listen to the music they listen to, go where they go. We don’t want to be different, because people who are different are teased, mocked, ridiculed, spit on & sometimes beaten and even killed.

We are constantly being pressured from all sides:

1. The youth are being pressured by their “friends” to dress a certain way, have sex, drink alcohol, and do drugs. Their being pressured by their school to believe that evolution is the truth and creation is a religious hoax. Their being pressured by society to believe sex before marriage is O.K. as long as they use protection, and abortion is a choice not murder.

2. Adults are being pressured to believe that work is more important than family, money is more important than morality, and popularity more important than character.

3. Christians are being pressured to conform to the world’s values instead of God’s.

Pressures are all around us and it’s very uncomfortable to stand apart from the crowd. We want to be liked, accepted, we often desire to try to please everybody. (Old man, young boy and Heine the mule). Moral of the story – Try to please everybody and you’ll loose your Heine… A heavy burden… My purpose in life is not to please everybody; my purpose is to please God.

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you have that palm branch, dad?” “You see, when Jesus came into town, ev

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